Which to use
“portais” is an adjective and “posais” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #26,136
- “portais” frequency rank
- #26,477
- “posais” frequency rank
- 52613
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | portais | posais |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Relatif au Port, commune française située dans le département de l’Ariège. | Première personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de poser. |
Where the eye mixes portais and posais
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. portais runs 7 letters (CVCCVVC) against posais's 6 (CVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: portais vs posais
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: portais is \pɔʁ.tɛ\ while posais is \po.zɛ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52613, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
portais is recorded at frequency rank #26,136, classified as anadj, pronounced \pɔʁ.tɛ\. posais is at rank #26,477, tagged as averb, pronounced \po.zɛ\.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 52613, this pair ranks #146,479 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of portais vs posais
Shared letters: aiops. Private to "portais": rt. Private to "posais": -.
"portais" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC · "posais" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "portais" and "posais" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "portais" or "posais"?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "portais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "posais" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #146,479 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "portais" and "posais" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Polaris vs posais". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #146,479 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.